Chapter 8

Before Donna called asking him to be part of the agency’s pre-retirement seminar, Scott had been thinking about taking a vacation. The business was a success and he wanted to enjoy some of that success. If anything was to happen in the stock market he could tell Beth and Maggie what they needed to do on the client’s accounts and without a doubt, he knew it would be done.

He thought about where to go and what he wanted to do in taking a vacation. Doing some fishing was quickly dismissed as he could do fishing here in Belton Lake. Visiting the east coast and seeing the historic sites, going to the northwest, and seeing the scenic beauty along with going out of the country were the places he considered visiting.

He knew he needed to make a decision and finally decided he would go out to the west coast, namely southern California and see places that were of interest to him there. These other locations he planned on visiting in the future. Having made the decision he booked a flight to San Diego, made a rental car reservation, hotel reservations, and booked a return flight from Los Angeles. Laughing to himself he thought he was going all out in doing this touristy thing.

There was no problem with the flight or getting the rental car. It was a short drive to the hotel where he checked in quickly.

Scott along with probably millions of people enjoyed the Top Gun movies. He had searched the internet for information on the locations where scenes of these two movies were filmed. Armed with that information he planned on seeing those places as he made his way north to LA. With that in mind, he went across the street from his hotel to the Kansas City BBQ, where the bar scene was filmed for the first movie. The food and the drink hit the spot as he gave this place a good looking over remembering the scene from the movie. He could see there had been some changes made when the damage from the fire was repaired that occurred here after those scenes were filmed.

The next day Scott walked over to the USS Midway which was docked at a pier there and was now a museum. He toured the boat and had mixed feelings. Those feelings were about how so many sailors could live on this ship in close quarters and what this ship did in the way of flight operations. There wasn’t a long line of people waiting to go into a flight simulator. He wanted to do this flight simulator but the requirement was that it be done with two people and Scott was single.

In looking at what was going on he noticed a young boy, probably around twelve years old, pleading with his mother for them to go into a simulator. The mother he could see did not want to do it and wasn’t going to change her mind.

“Excuse me,” said Scott. “I can’t help but notice your son wants to go into a flight simulator and you don’t. I am single and if it is okay with you he can go with me.”

The son’s pleading now became more intense.

After giving Scott a good look she said that would be okay and they introduced themselves to each other. The boy who was named Jordon seemed like a nice kid and said he wanted to be a navy pilot when he gets older.

The ride or the time in the simulator to say the least was very interesting. They took off from an aircraft carrier, made a bombing run, and with Jordon at the controls made a successful return landing back on the carrier. Jordon said he practices doing this landing with a flight simulator program that is on his computer at home. Scott could feel the adrenalin rush a pilot must get in doing the real thing. He thanked Jordon for his good piloting as he handed him back to his mother saying goodbye.

That afternoon he drove around the area finding the few locations where the filming was done that he could see before he called it a day and had an adult beverage.

The following day he checked out of the hotel and was heading north on interstate five. Every so often he would get off the interstate and pass by to give a look or maybe stop and do a short visit at a place of interest mentioned in the guidebook.

In Long Beach, Scott took a pass on visiting the Queen Mary but he did tour the battleship USS Iowa. This was Admiral Halsey’s flagship at the surrender ceremonies in Tokyo Bay. Again Scott continued to be amazed that so many people could live on a ship in such close quarters.

Scott was standing with a small group of people by the massive sixteen-inch gun barrels. The guide asked if anyone here saw the motion picture “Battleship.” Did they remember the scene where four people were struggling to carry the shell that goes in the sixteen-inch gun? A few in the group raised their hands.

“Well, they should be struggling because those four people were supposedly carrying an armor-piercing shell that weighs twenty-seven hundred pounds if you can believe that,” and he laughed.

After fighting the traffic which always seems to be at rush-hour levels in LA, Scott checked into the hotel. He called it an early night as for some reason he was tired.

The next day Scott did more touristy things. He visited the Getty museum which was worth the visit. It was amazing to him what these gifted artists created with the paintings and sculpturing he saw on display. This was a place he would recommend if he was ever asked as being a must-see. To finish the day he purchased from a street vendor a map that allegedly showed where current and prior television and movie stars lived or had lived. There was no way he could know if the map was accurate.

Doing this driving tour of these stars’ homes was easy to do. All he needed to say was, “Siri, take me to...,” and she gave the directions.

While doing this house tour he thought he would take Sharon Anders up on her offer to show him around. He pressed her phone number on his iPhone.

She must have noticed on her phone who was calling because she answered saying, “I was going to call you about going fishing.”